Toronto Raptors go quietly in loss to Philadelphia 76ers

TORONTO — Dwane Casey was talking about Ed Davis. However, he could have been talking about any Toronto Raptors player.

“You’ve got to look at whole body of work as far as his year is concerned,” Casey said before the game. “I look at the whole, big picture. He has a lot of work to do. He’s not arrived yet.”

After the season ends in two weeks, that will be the Raptors head coach’s challenge: assessing players who have been all over the place this year. A sleepy 93-75 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, which was almost a stereotype of a passionless late-season game, will do little to help.

Against the Sixers, Davis was the best Raptor, with 13 points and 13 rebounds. But this was an unwatchable game that Philadelphia took over in the second half, and one the Raptors did not seem particularly capable of taking. The Raptors shot just 36% from the field. Thad Young led Philadelphia with 17 points.

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But the general, more than the specifics of Wednesday night, is what is important. Unfortunately, the only consensus for most of the Raptors is that there is no consensus about their status as NBA players.

• Andrea Bargnani showed improvement in his 31 games this season — especially his first 13 — but he could very well be done for the year with a recurrence of his left calf injury. He is scheduled for a MRI on Thursday, but it will be tough to justify putting him in harm’s way in meaningless games.

• DeMar DeRozan has gotten better as the season has gone on, but he was atrocious to start the year. And he still has significant holes (three-point shot, ball-handling) in his game.

• Amir Johnson has been the most confounding of all. Known for his energy, Johnson has been flat for much of the season.

In terms of player development, this season has been a mixed bag. Unfortunately for Davis, it has been more bad than good.

He had one of his best games against Philadelphia. In the second quarter, he took a pass from Justin Dentmon, filled the lane and threw down a two-handed jam. It was an aggressive play and a committed play. In the past, hesitance has often defined Davis’s game. Later in the half, be outbattled Sixers rookie Nikola Vocalic, a much bigger player, for a rebound, slipping in a put-back bucket. He was swallowing up rebounds, the vacuum cleaner to the ball’s dust bunny, recording 10 in the first half.

Somehow, Davis’s 11-point, 10-rebound game on Monday against Indiana was just his third double-double of the year. (The first two, it should be noted, came in blowout losses.) Davis had 13 double-doubles last year.

Of course, Davis played more last year, too. In his second year, his minutes have dropped, from almost 25 minutes to a little more than 22. Part of that is because Dwane Casey values size and strength, and Davis, at the moment, is lithe. As is the case with DeRozan, Casey knows where he wants Davis to spend a lot of his off-season.

“This summer is going to be huge for him as far as getting stronger in the weight room, getting bigger, putting the power in power forward,” Casey said.

At his current size, Davis’s production has been lacking. His scoring per 36 minutes has actually gone down from 11.3 points to 9.5 points, with his shooting percentage just creeping above 50%.

And the frontcourt is going to be crowded next year. Jonas Valanciunas, the No. 1 pick from 2011, is coming over from Lithuania. Bargnani likely is not going anywhere. Johnson is under contract — not a particularly team-friendly one — and the draft is loaded with big men.

With that in mind, Casey had a message for Davis and his teammates.

“Our young guys, they’re not 10- or 12-year [veterans] where they need a month off to rest their bodies,” the coach said. “He needs to take maybe a few days off, recharge or whatever, and get right back into the weight room because we’re going to be finished a lot quicker than these playoff teams.”